The information in this book is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Bettina and Uwe Steinmueller. The authors assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book.

Chapters 4 teach the use of layers in Photoshop. All our workflow will be from that moment on only layer based. tools and techniques Chapter 3 covers what you need to know to master the raw file conversion and Camera Raw 2. Our book provides you with complete introductions to master the digital photography workflow. But there is also a lot to learn to master this new medium. Most of today’s modern digital Single-lens Reflex cameras (DSLR) and some high end digicams support a RAW format. Chapter 7 is a catalog of additional imaging tools that can enrich or ease your workflow Chapter 8 briefly gets into some printing and web publishing options
x
. you then will improve and find your own personal workflow. Capture One DSLR and Nikon Capture. First.Preface
Working with today’s digital cameras can be joy because of its interactive nature. you need to master the RAW file workflow. Be aware that we provide a workflow that works for us. Photoshop® CS basics. with only rudimentary in-camera processing performed. Color Management. Once you have learned our way of doing things. Photographing using the RAW image format will allow you to obtain the best quality from your camera.0. The RAW image format is the data as it comes directly off the CCD or CMOS sensor. Chapters 2 covers the basics of the digital photography editing process to help you understand and follow our workflow. Chapter 5 defines the workflow in all its steps Chapter 6 show some more advanced techniques for you to use. you will be able to take full advantage of the quality that you camera can provide. By following our step-by-step instructions.

Either the tools we present do a better job than the Photoshop equivalent or they are easier to use. Chapter 10 outlines what you need to do for backup and archiving We do not want to push the tools we present here. Most of the software comes with a free demo version: Try before you buy.Chapter 9 introduces the exciting world of B&W photography using digital color photos. We are pleased to offer this book as a tool for producing images in this electronic age. Bettina and Uwe Steinmueller January 2004
11
. The art of digital photography is rich in potential. We believe that this tutorial material will significantly enhance your ability to explore this exciting technology and help you enjoy the process of discovering the world of digital photography. and the technology for producing quality images is still evolving.

9-10 decent quality and better compression 7-8 ok quality and even more compression 1-6 we never use that strong compression

Note: Never use JPEG for photos that should keep their optimal quality. 2.9.3 JPEG 2000 Offers many improvements over JPEG but is not really in the mainstream right now. You can install a Photoshop CS plug-in to work with JPEG2000 files (on the CD). 2.9.4 PHOTOSHOP PSD Photoshop PSD was our format of choice when we saved images with layers. With Photoshop CS we use TIFF with all layered files, since the compression can be better (especially 16bit).

2.10 FILE INFO AND HISTORY
2.10.1 FILE INFO The Photoshop CS File Info dialog (File->File Info) can display a lot of information about your current image. If you use Camera Raw 2.0 for your raw conversion you can also inspect many camera and conversion parameters. Do not get confused because some parameters are displayed twice. This happens because the camera manufacturers use different tag names for the same camera properties.

2.11 DYNAMIC RANGE, CONTRAST AND BRIGHTNESS
One of the key goals in your workflow is to optimize contrast, brightness and saturation. 2.11.1 IMPROVE YOUR IMAGE WITH LEVELS Image->Adjustments->Levels (Ctrl+L a shortcut to remember) is the main tool in Photoshop to control contrast by adjusting the white, black and brightness. The histogram displays 256 levels of grayscale (0 = black to 255 = white) present in the image. If the image represents a range from black to white the histogram should stretch over the full range.

Levels with Histogram The analysis of the above histogram shows that the range below 25 and above 198 is empty. Enhance the photo’s contrast by setting the left (black) triangle close to 25 and the right triangle (white) to just above 198. The contrast of the image increases, and the colors will show up as more saturated. Most importantly, check whether these corrections really improved the photo and meet your intentions. This operation maximizes the dynamic range used by the corrected image.

Levels Corrected Here is a tip we got from our friend Phil Lindsay: “Maybe a caution about using the right highlight slide. I have found that it is very easy to throw away (clip) delicate highlight detail. Simply moving the slider to the beginning of the right side of the histogram curve can cause the problem”. We second Phil’s observations. Never try to create a too strong contrast, as removing contrast is much harder than adding contrast. There is also one psychological effect to consider. If you compare two versions of the same image and one has more contrast, the image with the higher contrast draws more attention. This does not mean it looks better. Also printing on matte fine art papers (that we only use) cannot reproduce as high contrast as some glossy papers might reproduce. A good way to judge this situation is to use the Threshold mode by pressing the “Alt” key while using the right/left sliders (highlights and shadows).

Threshold Mode In the Threshold mode you can exactly see which data would get clipped if you set the right/left sliders to certain values. In general you do not want any clipping at all Note: You also can change levels at the different color channels (R, G and B). Be aware that you will change the color of the image though. 2.11.2 GAIN MORE FLEXIBILITY USING CURVES The Curves tool is one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop. Levels only allow linear corrections, while curves allow you to do much more with the image. Mastering curves is not easy but it is well worth the effort. We want to show some uses of curves that are easy and yet very useful. Curves can control all colors (RGB) or only a single color channel (R, G, or B). 2.11.2.1 USE S-CURVES FOR CONTRAST TUNING

S-Curve - Preview On and Off The above S-Curves enhance the contrast. “S-Curves” are a very powerful tool and make often saturation enhancements unnecessary. Note: You also can lower the contrast by using inverse “S-Curves”. Note: The S-Curve can introduce a color shift. This can be prevented by using the “Fade” tool immediately after the Curves operation, or by using Curves with adjustment layers (see chapter 4).

We use these kinds of curves to improve the brightness. Try yourself and you will realize that only a small move in the curve has a strong visible impact. Tip by Phil Lindsay: “When in curves, clicking on the very light but important highlight detail will indicate the corresponding position on the curve. I often lock this point on the curve so that I don't lose it during curve adjustments.”

Use a finer grid for Curves
Alt+Click on the grid toggles between two modes (a 4x4 grid and a 10x10 grid). We use the finer grid all the time. The Curves dialog can be also be enlarged by clicking .

Different Grids for Curves

Saving and loading Curves
Some curves can be used on multiple images. In this case you save the curves to your “Photoshop Settings” folder and can load them later on demand.

You have to understand that SH does not brighten the whole image globally but relative to the context in which some pixel exists instead. The radius is the area in pixels where SH looks whether a certain pixel needs brightening or not. The true algorithm is of course proprietary to Adobe, but it can be seen that SH also tries to keep the context restricted to objects. This means that a dark phone line does not get brightened just because inside the radius is a bright blue sky. The tonal width determines how gradual the brightening occurs. Then finally the Amount influences the strength of the effect. Yes, this is a complex control but much easier to use than it sounds. Start using our default values and go from there (shown in the dialog screen shot above).

Highlights
The settings for the highlights work the same as for the shadows just in the opposite direction. The highlights get toned down.

Mid-tone contrast
The mid-tone contrast slider is a dream comes true. With it, you can control the contrast and restrict it to the mid-tones. • Color Correction If this slider is set to zero, the contrast enhancement does not shift colors. Sometimes you may want t the contrast to enhances saturation. This slider allows you to do this. Only the changed part of the image will get slightly more saturation. • Saving/Load/Default settings

You can save these settings and load them later. You should also save a setting as the default and use it as your starting point. Our settings are shown in the SH dialog. It is advisable that you use Shadow/Highlight in 16 bit mode. Note: SH can produce halos at high contrast edges. Try to minimize this effect by staying at low radius values.

2.12 THE ART OF SHARPENING
All digital photos require sharpening. Especially since the AA filters in most digital SLRs blur the image to decrease color aliasing. Sharpening is one of the most difficult and subjective topics in digital photography but the available tools are improving. The sharpening process has a built-in contradiction: While giving the impression of sharpness improvement the viewer must be aware that some smaller details might get lost during this process. That is why the targeted viewing distance is very important. 2.12.1 USM (UNSHARP MASK) The classic tool for sharpening in PS is USM (Unsharp Mask). It is also important to be aware that it is difficult to judge sharpening on the screen. A photo that looks hopelessly over-sharpened on the screen might be exactly right for some inkjet printers. Sharpening Artifacts should be limited to a minimum: • • Halos (white or black borders at edges) Noise will get sharpened as well, making it more pronounced.

There are a lot of sharpening tools out there and it is up to you to figure out your favorite methods. 2.12.2 HOW PHOTOSHOP UNSHARP MASK WORKS The most used tool for sharpening is probably straight USM (Unsharp Mask) in Photoshop and nearly all techniques are a variation of it. To get an understanding of the sharpening issues you need to better understand how Photoshop USM works and its inherent limits.

4.10 USE AUTO COLORS TO TUNE CONTRAST
Normally, you should be very careful with every tool that has the name “auto” in it. Your eyes and skills are soon better than most automatic tools. However, as with every "rule", there are exceptions. Here is a trick that uses auto colors in Levels to tune contrast. You start with an unsharpened image (this is actually a small crop)

Sample image has a flat contrast (100% pixel crop) 1. Create a new Levels Adjustment layer and you get this histogram in Levels

Actually remember that clipping is bad most of the time. But with this technique you get away with it. You can also check “Save as Default” if you want 0.2 to be your future default. Don’t worry about the horrible colors you see right now. Here is what happens behind the scenes. Each channel is clipped in the shadows and highlights by 0.2%. Because each channel gets clipped differently, the result can be a very strong color shift. The next figure shows only the red channel, but you should inspect green and blue as well.

The contrast has been increased. Unfortunately, this is far too much due to the strong clipping. What do we do if a layer shows the right effect but just too much? Correct, we turn down the opacity. In this case, about 30% opacity will do the trick.

4.11 OPTIMIZE LAYERS WITH ADVANCED BLENDING OPTIONS
If you select the Blending Options for a layer the following dialog will pop up.

Showing the Advanced Blending default setings The slider labeled “This Layer” allows a very interesting control of the blending. For example in the last section you learned hot to improved the contrast. The downside of this technique can be too much contrast in the highlights and shadows. You can reduce the effect to the highlights and shadows if you set the sliders as shown here